The camera pans away out of the darkness.
Close-up of Ikari's mouth in silhouette.
He is speaking on the telephone.
IKARI (OFF to begin with):“Correct. I have already reached agreement on that issue with the committee.”
UrsusArctos: This episode starts out like Episode 07, with Gendo making a call to a mysterious party. Unlike the previous episode, there's no establishing cut of the Nerv pyramid, documents or the office. This is a profile shot with bluer/grayer lighting than the similarly sinister shot from last time.